A First Look at InXile's Wasteland 2

At a recent New York City showcase, Brian Fargo, Wasteland 2 director and co-founder of InXile Entertainment, presented a guided demo of the most recent build of Wasteland 2. After two years of development, the game is now in its home stretch, and is scheduled for a September release.

The original Wasteland was released in 1988 for the Commodore 64, Apple II, and PC DOS, to much critical acclaim. Despite the positive reception at the time and long-standing praise since its release, a proper sequel never came to fruition. Developer Interplay did not have the rights to the Wasteland brand name, and moved on to develop and publish other famous titles, such as the Fallout games.

Fargo left Interplay and founded InXile Entertainment in 2002, and the company succeeded in acquiring the rights to Wasteland shortly thereafter. But with no publishers willing to fund a potential Wasteland 2, the property went unused for years. That is, until the success of Tim Schafer's Kickstarter-funded Double Fine Adventure in 2012, which prompted InXile to use Kickstarter to raise funds for Wasteland 2. The funding project was a tremendous success, with Wasteland 2 drawing $2.9 million—$2 million more than the original $900,000 goal.

The Wasteland games take place in a post-apocalyptic future, where nuclear warfare has ravaged the world. Players assume the role of Desert Rangers, a group of lawful enforcers who help survivors and bring order to a world full of outlaws, mutants, and machines.

Wasteland 2 is split into two major parts. The first half of the game takes place in the American Southwest, and strongly reflects the aesthetic and style of the original Wasteland game, though Fargo promised that players do not need to have played the original game in order to enjoy Wasteland 2. That said, Fargo made it clear that those who played the original game will find Wasteland 2 chock full of references and Easter eggs.

The second half of the game takes place in Los Angeles. Where the Arizona section feels like a continuation of the first game, the Los Angeles section is completely new and unique. Environments are much more developed and urbanized, though overgrown and derelict. Los Angeles has a stronger human presence, particularly in respect to organized cults, though players will encounter entirely new enemies and weapons, as well. Los Angeles is also different in that the Desert Rangers have virtually no presence in the region; few of LA's inhabitants know of the Rangers, despite their prominent role and reputation in the Southwest.

Wasteland 2 starts with an event scene depicting the funeral of a Desert Ranger named Ace. Following the scene, players are thrust into a character-creation screen. Like in the original Wasteland, players do not create a single protagonist, but a group of four Desert Rangers. Players can, of course, customize these characters aesthetically as well as mechanically, by choosing their starting stats and skills, but the game also has pre-made characters to allow less patient players to more easily jump in and play.

Fargo explained that despite Wasteland 2's strong narrative, the game is sandbox-like in nature and gives players plenty of freedom to explore the world and interact with its inhabitants. The flipside to this freedom is that there are strong and often-immediate consequences for the way players handle themselves in the world of Wasteland 2. These consequences come into play at various times during the guided demo.

As Fargo interacted with the various NPCs in the area, he came across a morose redhead named Angie. After introducing herself, she insisted on tagging along with the team to help investigate Ace's murder, despite Vargas insisting that she isn't suited for the job given her obvious emotional distress. Fargo accepted Angie's request and allowed her to join the team. He explained that Wasteland lets players form parties of up to seven characters.

The world map is a dark and hazy place that players slowly traverse and explore. The map is revealed as the player moves across it, so exploration is the key to discovering new areas and secrets. Players will come across hostile encounters on the map, as well as dangerous radioactive hot spots and random merchants and events. Some areas and events can only be uncovered after extremely specific circumstances, further encouraging exploration.

Wasteland 2's combat is a highly strategic turn-based affair that is reminiscent of the XCOM games. Each character has a set number of action points they can spend during their turn, which they can use to move and/or attack enemies. The weapon type determines a character's attack range, so a melee weapon will have an extremely limited range of attack, while a sniper rifle can pick enemies apart from across the battlefield.

Beyond attack and movement ranges, the height and positioning of a character is crucial to a character's effectiveness. Attacking from a vantage point, obviously, gives a character more of an advantage than a character caught in a melee. The flipside is that accuracy is improved the closer a character is to their target. Crouching and taking cover are also critically important to mitigating or avoiding damage from enemy fire. Conservation plays a role as well, as the wasteland is hardly abundant in healing supplies and ammunition.

Crafting and maintenance can also give players a slight edge in combat. You can salvage parts from enemy weapon spoils that can be used to enhance gear. A salvaged scope can improve a rifle's accuracy, for example. Sticky tape can be added to say, a club, which can give +1 to a character's action points.

The recent success of classic-styled RPGs like Divinity: Original Sin proves that there is a demand for thoughtful and slower-paced sandbox RPGs, which games like it and Wasteland 2 are eager to satisfy. Given the legacy of the original game, Wasteland 2 has some big shoes to fill, but the expansive story, the tremendous freedom and the overall polish of what was presented makes Wasteland 2 a promising and endearing return to classic RPG formula: one that has been largely absent in modern gaming.

Wasteland 2 is scheduled for release in September for PC, Mac, and Linux systems.

Gabriel Zamora is as passionate about writing as he is about video games and electronics, and his fervor has led to game and tech article contributions in a variety of online publications including PCMag.com, Examiner.com, 2D-X.com, and Multiplayergames.com. When not criticizing the state of gaming or reviewing tech, Gabriel spends much of his time attending related events in New York City, catching up on his favorite written works, or trying out new cooking recipes at home. You can follow him on Twitter: @Dracozombie....
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